some say twenty, years more, so that the church was not ded (illegible text) till 1085 or 1094.[1]
The part first erected was apparently the internal church, co(illegible text) by the five great domes, which are arranged in the form of a (illegible text) not of a Greek cross. The central one, and that in front of it, (illegible text) 42 ft. in diameter internally ; the other three 33 ft. The extern(illegible text) aisle or portico which envelops three sides of the nave was added afterwards, though probably in immediate continuation of the central building. It is this which gives to the plan of the church a somewhat square or Byzantine form. But the extreme richness of decoration, displayed on the exterior of the porch is very unlike anything we know of in the Eastern Empire. Few things, indeed, are more remarkable than the external plainness of the great Byzantine edifices of Justinian's age, and for several centuries afterwards. So far as we can at present judge, it appears that the eastern architects borrowed the fashion of ornamenting their exteriors from their Western brethren; and it would probably be more correct to ascribe the subsequent decoration of Byzantine edifices to the example of St. Mark's, than to assume that its design was borrowed from the East.
Internally the church measures 205 ft. east and west, and 164 ft, across the transepts. Externally these dimensions are increased to 260 ft. by 215 ft., and the whole area to about 46,000 ft.; so that, though of respectable dimensions, it is by no means a large church. Nor is the arrangement of the plan, or the disposition of the parts, at all equal to those of Northern architects, if looked at from a purely architectural point of view. The screens of pillars which divide the nave from the aisles are unmeaning ; the projection of the transepts is too great for the length, and the general arrangement wanting in unity. It is impossible, however, to find fault with plain surfaces, when they are covered with such exquisite gold mosaics as those of St. Mark's ; or with the want of accentuation in the lines of the roof, when every part of it is more richly adorned in this manner than any other church of the Western World. Then, too, the rood-screen, the pulpit, the Pala d'oro, the whole furniture of the choir, are so rich, so venerable, and on the whole so beautiful, and seen in so exquisitely subdued a light, that it is impossible to deny that it is perhaps the most impressive interior in Western Europe. St. Front, at Perigueux,
- ↑ Recently a crypt has been discovered and cleared out, which extends under the whole of the eastern part of the church. 86 ft. by 74. Its vault is supported by fifty-six monolithic columns. .5 ft. 6 in. high; the whole height from the floor to the crown of the arch being under 9 ft. In the centre, immediately under the high altar of the upper church, on a raised platform between four stone piers, originally rested the relics of St. Mark; this part being much more highly ornamented than the rest of the crypt. There seems no reason for doubting that the whole of this crypt in all its details forms part of the church as re-erected in the 11th century, and is interesting as remaining almost unaltered to the present day.
